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| Thursday, June 25, 2009 |
| How much is enough? |
The Boston Globe article: How much is enough for retirement? Consider what's important in your life has Humberto Cruz cautioning against needless lifestyle inflation and thoughtless consumer creep. I’ve pondered the question of how much is enough after receiving a perceptive e-mail from a reader and review copies of two thought-provoking books.
The e-mail, from a longtime reader in Wisconsin, embodies the philosophy guiding my own semiretirement.
“Many of my 50-something friends are wasting some invaluable time that they’ve been given on Earth,’’ this reader said. They are caught up in an “earning and spending cycle’’ (must keep working hard so they can keep buying things they don’t really need) while worrying they’ll need to save a lot of money to retire.
“I can’t believe the number of smart, talented friends I have who are not particularly happy doing what they are doing,’’ the reader said. But they believe “they must continue so they can stop working at (fill-in-the-blank age) to play golf or sit by the pool.’’
I must agree. What a waste, doing something you don’t like so eventually you can stop and do . . . nothing? How Much Is Enough? Making Financial Decisions That Create Wealth and Well-being
The Secret Language of Money: Understanding Your Emotional Relationship to Money, Wealth, and Success |
| posted by Boston Gal @ 9:12 AM *
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Just a few comments, without having read the article.
Agreed that many working stiffs are unhappy, even miserable, in their jobs. But usually by the time we get to this point, we are in our 30s or 40s and have a family to support, a mortgage to pay, maybe a fair pension built up, and so on. All of these factors make it very hard to switch careers. It's the lucky few who find or devise a way to pull it off, so I would not be too hard on the folks who decide to just tough it out.
If somebody's idea of a good retirement is to sit by the pool or play golf, so be it. Sounds pretty judgmental to want to impose my own ideas of what constitutes a good retirement on others.
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Just a few comments, without having read the article.
Agreed that many working stiffs are unhappy, even miserable, in their jobs. But usually by the time we get to this point, we are in our 30s or 40s and have a family to support, a mortgage to pay, maybe a fair pension built up, and so on. All of these factors make it very hard to switch careers. It's the lucky few who find or devise a way to pull it off, so I would not be too hard on the folks who decide to just tough it out.
If somebody's idea of a good retirement is to sit by the pool or play golf, so be it. Sounds pretty judgmental to want to impose my own ideas of what constitutes a good retirement on others.